Death of Linux on netbooks greatly exaggerated

A Microsoft blogger says that the Windows operating system has achieved …

Netbooks and other small form-factor computing devices are growing in popularity. These low-budget products are looking increasingly relevant in the current economy and are attracting consumers who are looking for better value and mobility. This trend offers a unique chance for the open source Linux platform—which is well-suited for netbooks and doesn't add any licensing costs—to gain some much-needed traction.

Vista is too demanding for netbook hardware, so Microsoft has chosen to extend the lifespan of Windows XP in order to stave off broader Linux use on low-end mobile hardware. This provides a window of opportunity for Linux to get a meaningful foothold in the market—an achievement that has perpetually eluded the free operating system—while Microsoft is prepping Windows 7, which is said to be more netbook-friendly than Vista.

The folks at Microsoft, however, contend that they have already won. In a triumphant blog entry posted earlier this month, Microsoft blogger Brandon LeBlanc asserts that Redmond has dominated the netbook space. Citing the latest NPD retail tracking reports, he says that Windows netbook marketshare has grown to 96 percent. He also suggests that high return rates for Linux netbooks are a sign that consumers overwhelmingly prefer Windows.

"Not only are people overwhelmingly buying Windows, but those that try Linux are often returning it. Both MSI—a leading netbook PC OEM—and Canonical—the vendor supporting the commercial distribution of Ubuntu Linux—stated publicly they saw Linux return rates 4 times higher than Windows," he wrote. "Why such a disparity? Because users simply expect the Windows experience. When they realize their Linux-based netbook PC doesn't deliver that same quality of experience, they get frustrated and take it back."

Although it sounds like Linux is out of the match, Microsoft's message doesn't entirely reflect reality. LeBlanc strategically omitted some relevant contextual information in his recitation of the NPD statistics. Specifically, the NPD study only counts sales from brick-and-mortar retail stores and doesn't include Internet purchases, which make up a very significant chunk of computer sales.

His statements about Canonical, the company behind the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution, are also misleading. It is unclear to me how he can cite Canonical in reference to MSI return rates, as MSI's Linux-based Wind netbooks ship with Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED), not with Canonical's Ubuntu Linux distribution.

Chris Kenyon, Canonical's OEM services head, took issue with this error. Kenyon wrote a response in the official Canonical blog. He says that LeBlanc's characterization of Linux as unpopular on netbooks is an "oversimplification" and he criticizes Microsoft for erroneously contending that Canonical has confirmed MSI's return rate statistics.

"Continually repeating that we 'confirmed' a 4x return over XP when we did nothing of the sort is really not worthy of a great company like Microsoft. If we are going to compete, let's do it on real facts and actual statements," he wrote. He says that roughly one third of Dell Mini 9 buyers opted for the Linux-based model instead of the one running Windows XP.

Last year, when we explored the reasons behind the high return rate of the SLED-powered MSI Wind, we talked with Nat Friedman, Novell's chief Linux technology officer, who said that he was not aware of the actual return rate. We discovered that much of the consumer dissatisfaction with the MSI netbooks was caused by configuration errors that are attributable to MSI.

The laptop maker shipped the machines without proper configuration for hardware features like the webcam and WiFi. Friedman suggested that technical problems of this nature are inevitable in what is arguably the first large-scale Linux rollout. Indeed, technical problems of this nature are not entirely isolated to MSI. I ran into a few problems—though nothing quite of that magnitude—with my Linux-based Dell Mini 9.

It seems that one major impediment for Linux adoption in the netbook market is that the OEMs haven't entirely figured out the platform yet. Linux on consumer-oriented devices is still relatively new to them, whereas they have seven years of experience dealing with Windows XP configuration challenges. This does give Microsoft an edge in the netbook market, albeit not quite one of the extent that LeBlanc wants people to believe. It's too early to count Linux out, but the platform will clearly face tough challenges if it continues to edge towards mainstream acceptance.

Major players like Intel are making large investments in order to boost Linux's viability on netbook devices. Intel's next-generation, Linux-based Moblin platform, for example, is designed to provide top-notch performance and hardware compatibility on Atom-based netbooks. A large number of Linux distributors are adopting Moblin and intend to use it as the basis of their netbook distros.

Initiatives like the Moblin project, which will make it easier for hardware vendors to deploy Linux on netbook devices, can help ensure that the open source operating system remains competitive in the netbook market.

59 Reader Comments

"The laptop maker shipped the machines without proper configuration for hardware features like the webcam and WiFi."

No wonder there was a 96% return rate. People don't like Lemons.

If I got a computer that was so badly misconfigured it was effectively unusable, I'd return it...and purchase one from another manufacturer. I wouldn't even bother wiping it and trying to get Linux working myself. I don't have that kind of time.

Actually, the B&M vs. online factor is extremely significant, because anyone with the slightest technical savvy (direct correlation with likelihood of choosing Linux version) is more likely to buy online than from a B&M.

Still, you are right that MS's big advantage is that manufacturers don't really understand Linux, and are used to simply putting a bunch of components together, loading Windows, and selling it. Linux needs some work to make it work perfectly with a particular set of components.

Simply put, however, the "free" nature (there will be a slight capital cost for learning the platform, and initial configuration, yet this can be amortized down quite easily through numbers) is a very significant advantage in the netbook world, where margins are low to begin with.

I have an eeePC that came with ASUS's goofy Xandros OS. That was quickly replaced with Ubuntu for eeePCs (now called EasyPeasy... don't know why). It would be nice to get some numbers on how many XP netbooks get reformatted with Linux and how many Linux netbooks get reformatted with Windows.

I can see someone buying a cheaper Linux based netbook and putting XP on it.

I can also see someone buying a higher powered netbook with XP on it because that's the only option, then putting Linux on it.

@jsl4980I agree with you that sales numbers can be simplistic. However, I think someone willing to use Linux will get a machin with it out of the box from Dell or any other, most of the time. So you should also put your perspective in perspective (kinda).

As I mentioned before, my very non-technical Mom is rather happy with her Wind running Ubuntu Netbook Remix. The only change I really had to make for her was to get her a mouse (which I would have had to do with Windows as well - she doesn't like the trackpad).

The places Linux is put on netbooks tend to be on stripped down, less functional models. I bought 2 Winds (one is mine) and both were Windows Versions. I wanted stuff the Windows version had in a non-crippled form. However, I certainly see no reason to keep Windows on there if you don't want to.

The second issue is what OEMs load. The Linux version of the Wind came with SLED instead of OpenSuse. And the eee shipped with Xandros. Xandros is esoteric and SLED doesn't have the latest and greatest features (some of which included hardware support which the Wind seriously needed). Most of the people I helped with it, I advised to just purge SLED and install OpenSuse or Ubuntu. If you're going to purge the machine anyway, why not just pay for the added hardware of the Windows Version, and use some adhesive remover and a hairdryer to remove the Windows mark of shame icon.

In my case, I could make my mom's install more secure with Ubuntu and setup OpenVPN so her machine could connect back to base and let me work on it.

Once I wiped the OS off my Dad's new EEE Box 206 and got Ubuntu Netbook Remix going, he's much happier with Linux, but if I hadn't been around to do it for him, he'd be back on XP.

I think it's great that manufacturers are finally giving us a choice of installed OS rather than being forced to chip in to Microsoft for the privilege of buying a new PC, but I'd be happier if the Linux configurations out of the box were more appealing to regular users.

Linux's big advantage may be shown soon. There has been a lot of talk of ARM based netbooks coming Real Soon Now. If these netbooks can beat the Atom based ones in battery life by a significant factor, then linux's portability will be a big win.

XP is doing well on netbooks for two reasons.

(1) It is what many people are used to(2) MS is almost giving it away to kill linux in the netbook space. As a small whitebox retailer, I wish MS would sell me XP for next to nothing instead of charging > $100 CDN.

Originally posted by ewelch:What was that about a Mac tax? We pay for a logo? Yeah, that and software and hardware designed to work together.

I'll keep that in mind the next time I have to break out a 3rd part app to edit launchd settings to run a script every so many minutes.

Or argue on an Apple message board that this random problem experienced by 80% of the Mac using population is, in fact, a bug. And then wait for the next service pack before it may or may not be corrected.

A Mac isn't for everyone either. I'm a PC, and I run Linux. (Where's my $2K MS?).

Moblin will revolutionize all of this if they can develop fast enough and spread the word wide enough. Using my EEE 1000H with Moblin Alpha 2 is markedly more like using my E8400/6GB RAM desktop than using said EEE with any other distribution I've tried (Easy Peasy, Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, maybe one or two more I'm forgetting). It's simply an amazing improvement.

Moblin will revolutionize all of this if they can develop fast enough and spread the word wide enough. Using my EEE 1000H with Moblin Alpha 2 is markedly more like using my E8400/6GB RAM desktop than using said EEE with any other distribution I've tried (Easy Peasy, Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, maybe one or two more I'm forgetting). It's simply an amazing improvement.

Well Moblin boots faster but I don't think it offers enough to be compelling. Being rpm based is a real loser for me. However, I see it more of a tech proving ground and its fast boot time will move into the other distros. They're planning on a Clutter-based launcher system eventually so I gather it will end up working a bit like UNR when its done.

Of course, if Moblin somehow triples my Ram, makes a 32-bit processor into a 64-bit processor, and increases its throughput by a factor of 10+, I'll put it on all of machines .

My wife and I are looking into buying us a pair of netbooks closer to Christmas time (after Win7 comes out). I refuse to buy one with XP loaded. Why would I want to pay for an OS that is that old? We'll probably get a higher end set (~$400 each), and I'd prefer to have a copy of Win7 or Linux on there. Unfortunately it seems like all of the higher end netbooks (such at the eee 1000HE) only come with Windows installed. I'd much prefer the option to save $50 and just load up Ubuntu.

There isn't much that I would need windows for on a netbook. It's certainly not a gaming machine. Netbooks are the perfect market for a wider adaptation of Linux.

However, I know I'll also install Ubuntu and dual boot even if I end up with a Win 7 machine. I may try to convince the wife to do the same, but she's afraid of change.

The real underlying issue here is that Microsoft required that the higher powered Netbooks that can run Windows XP not be sold with LINUX installed only Windows installed and only the Netbooks that were not capable of running Windows XP could be sold with LINUX. So you have the situation that if you want one of the more powerful Netbooks you had no choice but to buy the Netbook with Windows installed even if you did not want or are even going to use Windows. This I believe is very anticompetitive behaviour by Microsoft and I am amazed that this issue isn't at the forefront of these discussions on the Internet.

By the way, since "Netbook" is a trademarked term, would Microsoft's defining what can or cannot be sold as a "Netbook" be violating this trademark?

Microsoft has chosen to extend the lifespan of Windows XP in order to stave off broader Linux use on low-end mobile hardware.

Statements like this seem completely ridiculous. Microsoft doesn't have an anti-Linux agenda where they aim to quash any Linux successes. Microsoft is a corporation, and corporations exist to make money. They see an opportunity to make some profit it the netbook market, so why blaim them for going after it?

And because of the nature of Microsoft's products and their position as a price controlling monopolist, there is essentially no cost to them for putting XP on netbooks. By and large, all installations receive the same patches and support, so one more computer running XP has virtually zero cost (maybe the stickers cost a little). As long as Microsoft can profit a dollar selling licenses for XP, they'll do it.

Of course, they would love to be selling Vista licenses for a much higher price, but since Vista is targeted for more powerful hardware, they're out of luck. Look at where Windows 7 development has gone. With it, they'll have a single OS that scales from anemic netbooks to gaming behemoths, and surely it will command a better price than they're currently getting for selling XP licenses.

A girl friend of mine more or less replaced her 8 years old big PC with a Samsung NC-10 last week. She has most of her data on external drives, and because the processor, memory and hard disk of the Samsung are a lot faster and bigger than on her old PC she is very happy with the netbook. She can even play games on it, thanks to the fact that it runs Windows. Modern netbooks are really powerful! We were pleasantly surprised.

Microsoft has chosen to extend the lifespan of Windows XP in order to stave off broader Linux use on low-end mobile hardware.

Statements like this seem completely ridiculous. Microsoft doesn't have an anti-Linux agenda where they aim to quash any Linux successes. Microsoft is a corporation, and corporations exist to make money. They see an opportunity to make some profit it the netbook market, so why blaim them for going after it?

It isn't mutually exclusive - an anti-Linux agenda fits just fine with MS's goal of making money by (continuing to) sell/ing Windows OSs.

Microsoft has chosen to extend the lifespan of Windows XP in order to stave off broader Linux use on low-end mobile hardware.

Statements like this seem completely ridiculous. Microsoft doesn't have an anti-Linux agenda where they aim to quash any Linux successes.

They still have the dream to be on every computer everywhere, so I think they really want to destroy Linux, on any hardware. Their recent sudden 'cuddling' of Open Source is only because they couldn't get rid of it in other ways.

Originally posted by mantastic:Microsoft doesn't have an anti-Linux agenda where they aim to quash any Linux successes.

You can't be serious. Increased Linux usage is a very direct threat to their future profit. That combine with their history of such tactics in many areas makes it a virtual certainty this is what is occurring.

You can argue about whether it is "wrong" or not, but your own argument that they exist to make money contradicts your position.

What's hilarious is that one of the quotes talks about how people boot their netbooks and are confronted with something they aren't familiar with so they return them for XP. Nowhere do they mention the fact that they keep allowing OEMs to downgrade to XP due to the same complaint from customers when they encounter Vista.

If I were Microsoft, I would be a bit worried. You have the largest CPU maker in t he world developing an OS for the largest growing segment of the PC industry and it isn't Windows. Unlike smaller distros, Intel has the size and money to support Moblin as it grows. The Wintel brotherhood just went to crap with Intel taking its ball and going home.

Originally posted by chong:What's hilarious is that one of the quotes talks about how people boot their netbooks and are confronted with something they aren't familiar with so they return them for XP. Nowhere do they mention the fact that they keep allowing OEMs to downgrade to XP due to the same complaint from customers when they encounter Vista.

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Originally posted by smallmj:Linux's big advantage may be shown soon. There has been a lot of talk of ARM based netbooks coming Real Soon Now. If these netbooks can beat the Atom based ones in battery life by a significant factor, then linux's portability will be a big win.

That's why I'm looking closely at Always Innovating's Touch Book. It's a convergence of several things I've wanted: A netbook, a TabletPC, OMAP3-based, and runs Linux (their own distro, apparently). The price doesn't look bad, and with the separable keyboard's extra battery power, they claim 10-15 hours of battery life.

Of course, I'm also thinking of a Pandora once they start shipping actual production units. Wonder if that counts as a "netbook," since you can run a Debian port on it?

I think you're all missing something in a desperate attempt to rationalise away reality.

Go on line and look at all the netbook offerings. For every Linux one, there's four to five Windows ones. Many netbook makers don't even offer a Linux version.

And when you walk into a store like Best Buy, they just don't carry them.

You can argue it's because the staff don't understand Linux - but you're blaming the victim - they DO understand Windows (by your logic). If Linux is to compete - you have to be able to plop one down next to a Mac or a PC and a user shouldn't be able to tell (or care) which is which.

You're not there yet - or even that close in my opinion.

Cost isn't the only factor (ask Mac users) - convenience and ease of use are also big issues. Add to that the fact that the typical PC netbook comes with a big hard drive and more memory for a relatively small increase in price and your 'free' benefit goes away real quickly.

In the end, here's the thing. You guys don't like Microsoft - but most people don't care. You guys are obsessed with security. Again, most people don't care. Remove those two factors from the equation and try again.

People want to run Office - not OpenOffice. No, sorry - they're not interchangable. They want to run games. They want to use the apps they're familiar with, not 'equivalents'. Macs have a hard enough time in this area - but at least Apple is doing their level best to smooth out the bumps because they know their customers ARE prepared to pay a premium for their OS. It's telling that Apple's solution was to say 'you can always dual boot' - that's a open admission that like it or not, there are things you can only do in Windows.

With Linux, the total number of fans is much smaller and tend to be a discordant lot with very strong and randomly distributed opinions. No one wants to deal with that. MacOS is easy - one company - one model - one source, but with Linux it's distro du jour and we're back to 'will this app run on this distribution' again.

Ubuntu has made huge strides in unifying Linux - but it's still a dog's breakfast of choices. Most people *don't want that much choice*. It's distracting and takes up too much time.

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What's hilarious is that one of the quotes talks about how people boot their netbooks and are confronted with something they aren't familiar with so they return them for XP. Nowhere do they mention the fact that they keep allowing OEMs to downgrade to XP due to the same complaint from customers when they encounter Vista.

So what? This attitude is exactly why Linux is doomed. No one cares about this but the Linux people. Microsoft certainly doesn't - they get paid either way.

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If I were Microsoft, I would be a bit worried. You have the largest CPU maker in t he world developing an OS for the largest growing segment of the PC industry and it isn't Windows. Unlike smaller distros, Intel has the size and money to support Moblin as it grows. The Wintel brotherhood just went to crap with Intel taking its ball and going home.

Moblin is for the MID platform, not for netbooks. Nice try - go do some more homework. MIDs are super-PDAs and Microsoft isn't even playing in that market.

I don't suppose Dell's actually made a statement as to why you can no longer get a Mini with Linux... I was looking for one today, actually. Might even go with the Nokia N810 as its price is down under $250 these days. Doesn't do that much less.

The trouble is many people are so unskilled with computers that I can assume they thought Linux was a form of Windows so it must run my windows software.Linux has not been good about representing themselves as a separate OS from Microsoft Windows. But user's quickly find out that its not Windows and they take it back for a refund. In my own personal opinion I think netbooks has to be the worst place to put Linux. Many of these people are buying on the low end as maybe a laptop for a child or as a cheap first computer. Anyone familiar with Linux can agree (at least those honest about Linux) that Linux is still not ready for beginner's. My 12 year old daughter tried it and hated it!!! She wanted her Yahoo Messenger, and games and to run Microsoft Office for students. Its what she uses at school. Sure geeks love to think that every will love Linux like they do. But that's not going to happen very soon if ever!

Originally posted by t_newt:That's the problem that Linux needs to overcome--to be an operating system for everyone, not just 'Linux types'.

A lot of Linux fans don't want Linux to overcome this. They want it to be a club that excludes the general public. Thus you get things like this:

In a decade of Linux use, I've heard this over and over again. My response is the same - if you want Linux to be the General Purpose OS for All Creatures, you start the company and code a solution.

I help people learn Linux when they want to. It's really not that hard. Sure, things break and then you need someone experienced to fix them but that's no different than any other OS. If they don't want to learn, I don't see any reason to 1) force it down their throats or 2) bend over anymore to try and accomplish a goal that is frankly impossible. The goal is impossible because no matter how user friendly Linux gets (and its damned user friendly today), the demands of users will continue to move the goal line further down the field. The community does the best it can. If you want to make it better, help or code (I can't code so I help). Alternatively pay someone for support.

I'm debating whether to close with "Beggers can't be choosers" or "You can't have your cake and eat it too".

Moblin will revolutionize all of this if they can develop fast enough and spread the word wide enough. Using my EEE 1000H with Moblin Alpha 2 is markedly more like using my E8400/6GB RAM desktop than using said EEE with any other distribution I've tried (Easy Peasy, Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, maybe one or two more I'm forgetting). It's simply an amazing improvement.

Well Moblin boots faster but I don't think it offers enough to be compelling. Being rpm based is a real loser for me. However, I see it more of a tech proving ground and its fast boot time will move into the other distros. They're planning on a Clutter-based launcher system eventually so I gather it will end up working a bit like UNR when its done.

Of course, if Moblin somehow triples my Ram, makes a 32-bit processor into a 64-bit processor, and increases its throughput by a factor of 10+, I'll put it on all of machines .

It's not just the boot time. It feels much faster than the other distros in literally every other regard--especially Firefox rendering time, which would play heavily into the average "I just own this computer for email" user's experience.

I think you and I are just talking on two different levels, and I should have fleshed out my point more. (I didn't read any of the other comments before making mine, which doesn't help.) I was responding to the news post's discussion of whether Linux is dead on the netbook. I just want to contend that even if signs of life are weak, Moblin has tons of potential and already offers a much smoother experience performance-wise than any other distro I've had experience with on my EEE so far. Obviously, as it is alpha software, the experience hasn't been so smooth on other levels--update before last, Firefox segfaulted every time I tried to open it! But there's time to work on that kind of thing.

Anyway, I guess my point is that someone will build a great OS on top of Moblin, and I believe that can take the Linux netbook places it hasn't gone in terms of popularity because of Moblin's innovation in terms of performance (which you seem to agree with )

Originally posted by hypercommunist:"one third of Dell Mini 9 buyers opted for the Linux-based model"

I wonder how many of those were saving 50$ because they were just going to wipe the SSD & install Mac OS X?

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I like my Mini-9. Runs Fedora right now.

But the other kicker is that you couldn't get over 1GB of RAM ordering XP. If you wanted the 2GB more you'd have to choose Ubuntu.

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The problem with the Netbook folks running Linux is that they all went their own directions. MSI shipped SLED, Asus shipped a modified Xandros, Acer with Linpus, etc. etc.

This is partially because it was so new at the time they released this stuff, but partially it's because they have not learned to work together yet.

The deal here is that without some force like Microsoft to make them conform to a standard they have to do it on their own. This is a hard lesson for these types of folks to learn becuase they never had to coordinate before.. they always just took a generic development board design from the chipset , modified the layout a bit, slapped some custom plastic on it and shipped it out to the customers. Dealing with designing operating systems is something that they never had to deal with before.

That's one of the things Moblin should help out a lot about. If the project is successfull then they will produce a distribution that while the UI is easily customized to create different personalities for the various netbook manufacturers, but still retain the same level of hardware support and same set of APIs.

Ultimately I've simply spent way more time getting to know Windows systems, so I'd rather run WinXP on my netbook and have everything be consistent across all my computers with no need for learning other rules just to run a portable device.

It's more convenient for me because I've already learned the tricks, but I'm probably not typical either.

Your the group of people that are hardest for Linux.. the power user-type.

For people that are completely computer illerate you just have to make it obvious that the the 'blue planet with red thing' (firefox logo) is the same thing as the 'big blue e' (internet explorer logo). A few other small details like that and they can figure out the rest of it on their own.

For very advanced users or professionals that have to deal with Linux already they will be able to devote the time to making the transition simply because that sort of thing is what they are already into and the pay-offs are worth it to them.. if they are not profesionals then they would be hobbyists.

But for in-between types.. like people that have really learned how to use Outlook and depend on it's features, or people that know enough to setup a Access database or do MS Word macros (or even business programmers making a living or web developers), and things like that then these types only want to put effort into learning stuff that will directly benefit them in a fairly quick manner and already have put lots of effort into the Windows platform. To get to the same level of familarity with the Linux platform (seeing how they have been using the same OS (more or less) for over a decade at this point) would require a lot of exra effort. It would take weeks to get to the same level in Linux that they've reached in Windows, and even at that point it's doubtful that Linux would offer very compelling benefits.. it would take more effort after that to really get any really good benefit from switching.

So seeing how it's still going to be required for most people of this sort of type to keep on relying on Windows due to certain application support requirements (each situation is going to be a bit different) then Linux is not going to be that attractive at this point for a desktop OS.

(edit: that is not to say that I don't think that Linux is a good desktop OS.. it's just the barriers for entry is just very high and these barriers for power-user types are significant enough that this makes Linux not very attractive.)

People want to run Office - not OpenOffice. No, sorry - they're not interchangable. They want to run games. They want to use the apps they're familiar with, not 'equivalents'.

I thought you couldn't run many games on the Netbooks anyway so having Windows wouldn't make much of a difference since the ones you'd be playing were the Flash ones. You're right about the familiarity thing but there must be a big market of people willing to save $50 from the $300 price tag of a Netbook, unless MS is really underpricing XP on these machines. Anyhow, Linux is not something that can be killed since it's not backed up by one company so the Netbook race will be a longer one than the PC wars where it was Apple vs. MS.

Ubuntu has made huge strides in unifying Linux - but it's still a dog's breakfast of choices. Most people *don't want that much choice*. It's distracting and takes up too much time.

If we focus on just Ubuntu.... What "choice" are you referring to here? The multitude of applications? Since when is a wide selection of software a bad thing? Last time I checked, there is lots of software available for Windows as well, and no-one is whining how they get "confused" because of it...

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Moblin is for the MID platform, not for netbooks. Nice try - go do some more homework.

Why don't you take your own advice, and do your homework before making ignorant comments? Moblin.org says this:

"Moblin is an open source project focused on building a Linux-based platform optimized for the next generation of mobile devices including Netbooks, Mobile Internet Devices, and In-vehicle infotainment systems."

Notice the word "netbooks" in there? And if Moblin is not for Netbooks, why did they demonstrate Moblin on a netbook a while back?

And Microsoft should look at its own stats and see how well people liked going from XP to Vista. Kinda hypocritical to say no one likes Linux when people for the same reason don't like changing to Vista.

It took some time for me to appreciate Vista and all the changes, but now I like it better than XP. But, most people are not willing to change if at all possible, so they stick with XP.

I liked the Dell Mini 9 for being totally solid state. But, it was slow enough with XP, and unless I tried that distro specifically made for netbooks, I'd probably be disappointed.